Chapter Three

"I hate having breakfast at Geal's in my work clothes." Mila took a bite out of her toast with butter and cinnamon.

"Why?" Jakk asked. He was busy cutting up his scrambled eggs.

"Everyone stares at me," Mila said, casting glances around at the other customers. "I mean, I know I'm only Labor and most of them are Elite, but they could at least be polite."

Jakk looked around. The resturant was made of a shiny, flawless white color. The tables, the chairs, even the workers' uniforms were pure white. The only color in the diner came from the customer's clothes, and most of those were a smooth silver, gray, or black. Only Jakk and Mila stood out: her in bright pants and boots, he in his crocheted green sweater and dark brown pants.

"Well, watch them bow on their knees and thank you when you fix everything in their over-bedazzled quarters." Jakk said, forking scrambled eggs into his mouth. "That'll be a sight to see."

"Yeah, but I hate feeling like I'm inferior to them," Mila complained. She lowered her voice. "Look at how they're staring at us. Like we're something that they scraped off the bottom of their polished shoe."

"What are you going to do about it?" Jakk leaned back in his seat and stared across the table at his friend.

Mila ran her fingers through her sandy blonde hair. "That's just the thing. Ican't do anything about it." She sighed. "Forget it. It's just a stupid pet peeve."

Jakk studied her. "Hmm," he said indifferently. "Well, I'm done." He pushed out his seat and stood up. Mila did the same. Jakk laid down two gold lunarcoins down on the table.

"That breakfast cost me a lot. You eat like a pig," he teased as they walked out of Geal's.

"Hey, you wake me up early, you pay the price," Mila smiled. "Now, let's go hunt some signal."

☯☯☯☯

"You sure it was here?"

"Positive."

Mila and Jakk had been tracking down the signal for over eight hours. It had taken them at least six hours to get to the Other Side, even using RALT (Rover Alpha Lunar Three)'s boosters. They had been actually scanning the three mile radius for about two hours. The readings had gotten stronger the closer they got to the site, but so far they had found nothing.

The moon's blank, gray surface surrounded them. No crashed satellite, no mysteriously glowing rock, no weird looking craters. Nothing.

In RALT, Mila sighed. "Maybe we should just give up."

"Give up?" Jakk asked. "The great Mila Arwyr giving up? Impossible." He handed Mila a hand scanner. "Here. Let's get out on foot."

He pressed a button on RALT's console, and the top hatch slid open with a hiss. Jakk and Mila, dressed in their spacesuits, climbed out and onto the moon's surface. Mila bounced around, enjoying the feeling of being (almost) as light as air. LuCA had artificial gravity, and it had been a long time since Mila had ventured outside of the colony.

Jakk was scanning already. Mila pulled out her own scanner and bounded several yards away.

Blip. Blip. Blip.

The scanner was consistent in it's beeping. Mila walked forward.

Blip blip blip blip blip.

The beeps became more rapid. Mila walked forward another few bounds.

blipblipblipblipblipblipblipblip

The beeping became almost a single sound. "Jakk!" Mila shouted excitedly over her headset. "I think I found it!"